The Orchestra was founded in 1951 by Samuel Samosud and at different periods its chief conductors and artistic directors were such outstanding musicians as Nathan Rakhlin (1957-1960), Kirill Kondrashin (1960-1976), Dmitry Kitayenko (1976-1990), Vassily Sinaisky (1991-1996) and Mark Ermler (1996-1998). In 1973 the orchestra obtained the status of an “academic orchestra”. In 1998, People’s Artist of the USSR, Professor Yuri Simonov became its Music Director and Chief Conductor.

From the season 2004-2005 the position of assistant to Maestro Simonov is given to Eduard Dyadyura.

The Orchestra performed with all the best Soviet conductors as well as some outstanding guest conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Charles Munch, Igor Markevitch, Kurt Sanderling, Igor Stravinsky, Zubin Mehta, Krzysztof Penderecki, to name a few, who all left an indelible mark on the orchestra’s history of success.

The Orchestra’s guest soloists such as Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin, Artur Rubinstein, Glenn Gould, Maurizio Pollini and many others, praised highly the orchestra’s inspired performance, their fine sense of ensemble, and artistic unity. In Russia and on its tours abroad, the orchestra performed together with such a great Russian musicians as David Oistrakh, Sviatoslav Richter, Emil Gilels, Mstislav Rostropovich and Galina Vishnevskaya. They passed on their love and respect for the Orchestra to next generation of musicians such as Victor Tretyakov, Yuri Bashmet, Nikolay Petrov, Vladimir Krainev, Mikhail Petukhov, Nikolai Lugansky and many others.

The geography of the orchestra tours covers more than fifty countries. It gave performences at the best concert halls of the world: Carnegie Hall and Every Fisher Hall in New York, Royal Hall and Albert Hall in London, Musikverein and Opera House in Vienna, the Festival Hall of Herbert von Karajan in Salzburg, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, the best philharmonic halls in Berlin, Munich, Chicago, Oslo, Stockholm, Prague, Washington, Montreal, Paris, Madrid, Tokyo, Osaka, Seoul, Hong Kong and elsewhere. Always on the road, the orchestra is holding out for a variety of genres and styles offering a fascinating combination of technical perfection and expressiveness and artistic presentation. It has participated regularly in the most prestigious music festivals of Europe, and has performed in over 5000 concerts. In 1999-2003 Maestro Simonov led the orchestra on a series of highly successful tours of Great Britain and the United States, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, France, Poland, Croatia, Austria, Romania, Hungary, Japan and Southeast Asia. The season 2004-2005 included new American and Japanese tours, as well as Prague Autumn and Russian Winter Festivals. In the season 2005-2006 will be new Russian, Spain, UK and Korea tours.

The Orchestra has made over 300 recordings. During last two years, several CDs of Tchaikovsky—“Swan Lake” large suite (compiled by Yuri Simonov) and Italian Capriccio; Rachmaninov—Symphony No.2 and “The Rock”; Prokofiev—“Romeo and Julia” large suite (compiled by Yuri Simonov); Beethoven—Symphonies No. 1, 4, 9 were issued, all live from the Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire.